Dissemination Highlights
Stakeholder involvement and input were critical throughout each stage of the Urban Health Assessment, including during discussions about the dissemination of results. On November 14th, 2019 a Dissemination Workshop was held at the Morena Hotel in Dodoma, Tanzania. Sixteen stakeholders were present for the meeting, representing the national and county government (5), Tandale slum residents (1), non-governmental organizations (9), and multilateral organizations (1).
The purpose of this meeting was to review the case study and literature review to determine key findings and recommendations, as well as improve pathways for dissemination. The key recommendations identified are detailed below. Additionally, the Tanzania Case Study was featured in a recent webinar hosted by USAID’s Health Research Program. View the webinar here.
Participants from the Tanzanian National Bureau of Statistics informed the team that they are now in preparation to conduct a National Health Survey (DHS). They agreed that they need to oversample clusters from slums to be able to have national representative information. They also highlighted that they will segregate the results based on urban and rural and urban poor and rich.
The national team agreed that the urban population requires special consideration and specific interventions. They agreed that during the planning session and review of the National Multisectoral Nutrition Action Plan, they will incorporate interventions/activities for the urban poor population.
Stakeholders advised Ifakara Health Institute to leverage their role in the country to raise awareness of the published policy brief. Additionally, UNICEF agreed to organize a Nutrition Development Partners Meeting to further disseminate the findings.
Stakeholders highlighted the strong need to have policies and guidelines addressing the need of urban poor. The Tanzania Food and Nutrition Centre agreed to add a statement in their nutrition policy addressing the need of urban poor.
A representative from the Partnership for Nutrition in Tanzania agreed to take full responsibility to advocate for more engagement in urban slums and come up with the package on interventions targeting urban poor population.
